An allocation could be beneficial for portfolios that are overly concentrated in a single currency or currently only holding financial assets such as equities and bonds (with no real assets).
Holding gold alongside ‘value’ equities should also be considered as a pairing.
The latter would enjoy an environment of rising real yields, which in turn is one of the bigger near-term risks for the metal.
If investing in gold in this way, the preferred route would be through physically backed funds or exchange-traded commodities – in contrast to synthetic exposure.
Gold miners may be used in a similar way, but a smaller allocation should be considered.
This will help weather their greater volatility and the fact that their hedging properties may be less reliable in truly extreme environments.
This higher risk can also be advantageous, as a modest allocation can go a long way and means foregoing less in existing allocations.
Tigran Manukyan is an analyst at Fidelity International
